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Kimihiro Watanuki
Watanuki Kimihiro '(四月一日君尋, Watanuki Kimihiro) is a fictional character in the CLAMP manga, and anime: ''xxxHolic. He is almost always referred to by his last name, Watanuki. Watanuki means "April 1st " in kanji and it's a reference to the old tradition of removing the kimono to avoid the children to suffer diseases. xxxHOLiC manga 167His given name, Kimihiro, means prophet. Appearance Watanuki has short black hair, and blue/indigo eyes at the beginning of the series. About half way through both the anime and manga however he loses the sight in his right eye to a spider's grudge curse, and as a result, his iris turns a dull gray color. After failing to retrieve the sight, he receives half of Domeki's right eye's sight, which causes his right eye to turn a dark green with a brownish tint (Anime), or gold-brown (Manga). For the majority of the series, he wears an ordinary pair of glasses, however at one point he loses them, and replaces them with a pair that resembles, or may possibly be the pair that Clow Reed wore. Fei Wong Reed once mentioned he resembles a young Clow Reed, and Yuuko Ichihara has also pointed out their similarities. Personality Watanuki is known for having both a volatile and caring nature. Depending upon the person he talks to, his emotions tend to be overly exaggerated. When with Himawari he throws himself into the air and squeals "Himawari-chaaaaan!", accompanied by hearts. With Domeki, he almost always expresses irritation with various facial expressions, screaming, and erratic arm motions that remind Himawari of an angry cat. With the exception of these two and Yūko, Watanuki tends to address everyone around him with formality and kindness. In the beginning, he is very childish and kind of stupid, but as the series progresses he becomes more serious. He also gets along better with Doumeki and keeps his distance from Himawari to make sure her bad luck doesn´t affect him (until he gives her Tanpopo). All his goofy expressions disappear, he doesn´t squeal to Himawari when she appears, and is friendlier toward Doumeki. He starts to question his own humanity and understands more about the world and his own existence. After Yuko disappears and he takes over the shop, his personality takes a drastic change as he adopts a number of Yuko's mannerisms. He still hates Doumeki and thinks that Mokona is annoying, but is considerably calmer and more mature, evidenced by his acceptance of Himawari's marriage and his understanding of his customers' wishes. Biography Watanuki lives alone because his parents died, but harder than these conditions is the fact that his everyday life is plagued with spirits that only he can see. Apparently this was inherited- it is noted that his blood smells good to spirts. One average day, Watanuki is chased by a legion of spirits, when he falls and holds from a fence surprisingly the spirits are repeled right away. When rising the view, he sees a strange house. Two girls appear from the main door and welcome him. He insists that he entered by accident, but a voice replies that it was inevitable that he arrived to this place- it is fate. The voice belongs to Yuko Ichihara, who informs him that the store grants wishes in exchange for some sort of price. Yūko asks Watanuki what his wish is; he asks for the spirits to stop chasing him. She agrees to grant it if he works as a helper in the shop until he accumulates enough time. This is the beginning of Watanuki's part time job, in which there is many meets that coincide, but as Yuko says there's no coincidence, only hitsuzen (the inevitable). Watanuki meets people who help him to change and understand the world from Yuko's perspective, he also matures. Watanuki's life changes abruptly once he starts working for Yūko. He does not only cook and clean, but he is found making strange jobs and learning about the occult. He learns the power of divination, not noticing that this is the beginning of a transformation in himself. Since one of his biggest problems is his low self esteem – he'd gladly hurt himself if that helped someone else. It's suspected that this is why Yūko asked him to work in the shop, since he had nothing important enough to him to pay this wish with. This causes difficulties when others decide to help him despite risking themselves. Watanuki cannot accept someone sacrificing for him. In one case he exposes to great danger when spending time with the spirit of a woman, who lost her child when she was young. He does so that the woman doesn't experience the same loneliness he feels. He continues to see her despite falling ill (he even coughs blood). In the seventh volume a curse that should fall into Watanuki because of a spider which nest was destroyed by him, is transfered to Dōmeki. Since to release him of the net, Dōmeki destroyed the net, the curse of the spider evites him to open his eye. For this curse to be transfered, Watanuki had to suffer "worse" so he wishes for it, losing an eye to Dōmeki's anger. After this there is a great change in how Dōmeki treats Watanuki. Later on, Watanuki finds out that the Zashiki Warashi has been captured by the "Spider Queen" in an attempt to retrieve his right eye. Despite Yūko's warning about the risks of going there, he decides to rescue the girl. When he is captured and faces the Spider Queen, he offers the left eye and his body in exchange of releasing her. She rejects this offer, she wouldn't take something so easily; says to him that he's "throwing himself away as if nothing" something that Zashiki Warashi and the Kudakitsune are trying to retrieve so badly. This is a valuable lesson of self- value that he learns. In '''xxx''Holic Rou ''he becomes the owner of the shop after Yuko's death, after his parents cease to exist. He chooses to stay there until he finds a way to see Yuko again (as, by this time, his status as an anomaly in space-time is made greater, as is Syaoran's). Watanuki continues to grant wishes in the shop, although often taking too little or too much as prices. He gets along better with Doumeki as now he acts like someone completely different and quite mature, he doesn't hide his emotions and stops making movements and weird expressions. He tries not to get hurt when granting wishes, since everyone wants him to continue existing without hurting his heart or body. It seems that the transformation has completed and his personality suffers a great change. His magic is finally released, according to the Spider Queen he might no longer be human. Four years after, he meets Syaoran again (although it seems like 2 years to Syaoran). His coming inspired him to make a new signature, with a bird, taking this as a price he sends him and the group back to Clow Country so he can see Sakura again. xxxHolic Rou One-Shot Ten years after (Rou OAV only; this scenario does not appear in the manga) Watanuki, Domeki and Kohane are engaged in a dangerous task involving an Izuna user and the relics of a family. Then the Izuna's master speak directly to him asking for help and the price will be given through her lips. Once the task is met, Doumeki gives him the tape rewinding it again and again to hear: "I'm back, Watanuki-kun" to which he responds "Welcome back, Yuko-san" XxxHOLIC♦Rou OAD Role in Blood-C Watanuki makes an appearance in Blood-C, a twelve episode anime by CLAMP (thus the name Blood-CLAMP). In episode 7, Watanuki, reveals himself to be the shop owner of a wish granting shop in the body of a dog to the main character Saya. Throughout the anime, since episode 1, the dog has appeared many times and is always around Saya. Even though the dog does not speak, he gives off the feeling that he knows and understands Saya's situation. When he finally speaks to Saya in episode 6, it is not yet known that he is Watanuki, however he is still voiced by Fukuyama Jun who is Watanuki's voice actor in xxxHOLiC. Following on to episode 7 once again, Watanuki tells Saya everything that he can, admitting that he was sent to stay by her side as a result of a wish from one of his customers. Watanuki does not reveal who asked this of him but that he must appear as a dog to Saya until the wish is granted. The full specifications of the wish are not clear at this point either. Talents and Abilities At the beginning of the series, Watanuki has the power to see spirits and other things that are invisible for everyone else. He can also feel other people's emotions when they are talking. If they have a negative feeling, Watanuki starts to feel dizzy. If they have a positive feeling, Watanuki feels a calm and cheerful aura. Later in the manga and XxxHolic Kei season, Watanuki and Yuko buy some dreams balloons that allow Watanuki to enter the Dream World and have meetings with Haruka. In xxxHolic Shunmuki Ova, Watanuki follows a path made by Haruka to find five objects that allow him to break the barrier between his world and the Dream World, allowing him to enter when he wants. In the manga, Watanuki wins this ability by himself but he still can´t control the moment to enter. Later in XxxHolic Rou, Watanuki uses the smoke from Yuko's Kiseru to make spells. He can create or break barriers, make a road to find something or someone and travel or send people to other dimensions. He also mentions that he's more powerful inside Dream World. Later, in the last chapter of the manga, Yuko told him through his dream that his powers had grew up enough and he doesn´t need to stay in the shop. Watanuki has an exceptional cooking skill, although he thinks of it as a hobbie. Yuuko will never get bored waiting for Watanuki's food everyday, though. It´s mentioned by Himawari that Watanuki is good at sports and that he could be on the soccer team. Watanuki never had a part-time job before and he´s not in any clubs, despite that he has many skills. Relationships Yuko Ichihara Watanuki has a mentor-student relationship with Yuko, one that evolves in strength and importance over time . Their relationship evolves throughout the anime/manga. At the beginning of the manga, Watanuki only respected Yuko because she was older and wiser than Watanuki but he didn't genuinely care for her and often thought of her as treacherous and selfish. As the story progressed, Watanuki started caring for Yuko's well being and helped her with customers. At this time Watanuki also became more tolerant of Yuko and did not yell at her as much. By the end of xxxHolic, Yuko and Watanuki shared a deep and understanding bond as friends and Yuko even acted as Watanuki's caretaker. At this point, Watanuki confided with Yuko many of his problems and even talked to Yuko about serious and more complicated topics that could not have been discussed before due to Watanuki's immaturity. Yuko and Watanuki also show signs of holding a sort of love for each other though the true nature of it is somewhat ambiguous and could vary in degrees between the two. For example, when Watanuki and Yuko found each other in their dreams and Watanuki told her that he would grant any one of her wish no matter what it was as long as it made her happy. They find each other in their dreams several other times, usually being in the shop's yard. In one of these dreams, Yuko asks Watanuki if he's happy with being and working at the shop and Watanuki says that he is, to which Yuko says that if the shop is "reason enough" for Watanuki to stay, she's happy and Watanuki takes and holds Yuko's hand that was touching his face. Watanuki's caring feelings for Yuko appear once again when she's dying and Watanuki tells her that he will stay in the shop waiting for her and if wishes can come true just by wishing them and wanting them enough, he wishes to meet her again no matter how long it takes her to come back. Four years after Yuko's death, Watanuki meets Haruka Domeki in one of his dreams and as they are talking, Haruka points out that Watanuki is wearing his glasses even though he does not need them. Watanuki then tells him that he forgets to take them off sometimes and then he starts to tell Haruka that before Yuko died, when all Yuko's past customers said that they didn't remember Yuko, Watanuki was afraid and he said that it was the most frightening thing that he had ever experienced. He explained that he was afraid that he might forget Yuko also and so he had decided to carry on her things (her pipe, her shop etc.) and says "I will carry them on so that I don't forget Yuko san. And even if I do forget , I'll come close to remembering." In Chapter 207 (xxxHolic RO), Watanuki told a customer the meaning of "desire." He said it meant that you want to obtain something so much that you don't care what lengths you are willing to go to or even who you might hurt in the process. Watanuki later reveals that his wish to see Yuko has also turned into a desire. In the last chapter, Yuko meets Watanuki in a dream and tells Watanuki that he has waited in the shop long enough for her and that he could now leave the shop and be free. When Watanuki awakes, he explains his dream to Shizuka's great grand son. When Doumeki asks Watanuki if he is happy that he saw Yuko again, even in a dream, he says yes. He then proceeds to tell Doumeki that even though he is free and has the choice to come and go as he pleases, he will stay in the shop and wait for Yuko. This shows the desire that Watanuki really feels for Yuko because even though he saw a dream version of her, but not the real one, he will keep waiting for her just for the hope that one day a miracle will happen and he will be able to see her just once again. Here, the series ends, leaving it that Watanuki will wait for Yuko for as long as it takes. Clow Reed Watanuki and Clow have never met but Watanuki and Clow resemble each other very much and are often being compared to each other by Yuko, Mokona and Fei Wong Reed. It is also revealed that Watanuki is a descendant of Clow's. Clow also gave him his appearance, purposely. Chibi Kitsune Watanuki and Chibi Kitsune are good friends. Watanuki met him for the first time at his and his father's oden stand that cannot usually be seen by humans. The two form a friendly bond but do not see each other often since they live in two different worlds. Once, When Watanuki went to the Monster Procession, all the monsters realised that Watanuki and Domeki were humans and chased them, trying to kill them when Chibi Kitsune interfered and told them all what a good person Watanuki is until the monsters spared him. Later on, to express his thanks, Watanuki send Chibi Kitsune a dream (in a balloon) from the dream collector (which he had traded the broken arrow from one of his dreams for five of the dream collector's dreams). Kitsune He's Chibi Kitsune's father and he's very kind to Watanuki. He first met Watanuki at night in his oden stand. Watanuki always compliments Kitsune on his cooking, especially his famous oden (a type of stew). Kitsune is especially kind to Watanuki because Watanuki and Chibi Kitsune are friends and Watanuki is very generous, giving him a dream balloon and a sacred arrow, to Chibi. Himawari Kunogi Himawari Kunogi is Watanuki's primary love interest in xxxHolic. Himawari and Watanuki are best friends at school, often eating lunch together and walking home together after school, but there always seems to be something more than friendship between them. Since Himawari was first introduced, Watanuki already had a deep crush on her. He often says that he loves Himawari (he only says this in his head or to Yuko Ichihara or Shizuka Domeki) but in reality, this is just a mere infatuation. Whenever Watanuki is asked why he likes Himawari, he answers that it is because she is kind and cute and even though these are good traits in a person, it is not nearly enough reason to be in love with someone and so all of his friends know that this is not real love but just a crush. Also, when Watanuki first told Yuko about Himawari, Yuko told him that Himawari might not be his "lady luck/ lucky lady." However, Watanuki does not give any importance to what others say and keeps on trying to impress Himawari with smarts or courage. Watanuki also reveals in Vol. 2 of the manga that he likes Himawari enough to ask her out on a date but he has not done it yet because he gets tongue tied every time he tries. Later on in the series, Watanuki falls out of the second story window of the school and nearly dies until Shizuka brings him to Yuko's shop where she heals him. This is when Himawari displays care for Watanuki by paying half of the price to Yuko for healing Watanuki which was taking all the scars that Watanuki beared from the fall. When Watanuki finally wakes up, Himawari talks to him and reveals to him that she is bad luck - literally. Himawari had been born with a bad luck curse at birth which meant that she brought bad luck to those whom she mets, talks to, or touches with the exception of her parents. Himawari then tells Watanuki that they should not be friends or speak to each other any more because she does not want to hurt him. Watanuki then stops her and tells her that even though she is bad luck, he always felt lucky to have met her and that no matter what she said, he would still try to be with her. He then reveals that he likes her and promises her that he'll never do anything to hurt her or to make her cry. Later on, Watanuki asks Yuko if there is a way to remove Himawari's curse and Yuko says that she can but the price it will be all her happiness. She asks Watanuki if he is going to pay the price but Watanuki says that if he hurt himself for Himawari's sake then she will be sad and it will hurt her more than him. Watanuki decides that the only thing he will do for Himawari is continue being her best friend and making her truly smile everytime. Yuko does agree to help Watanuki with his relationship with Himawari by giving him an egg and telling him to sleep with the egg beside him and whatever he wants to emerge out of the egg, it will appear. In dreams, Watanuki wishes that something will be born that will keep Himawari company so that she will not be alone and so Tanpopo is born, a bird that is immune to Himawari's bad luck. Then, Watanuki gives the little bird to Himawari and they go back to being good friends though Himawari always touch Watanuki´s shoulder to get his attention but now she tries to keep her distance from touching him. Himawari remains the same but it can be seen that she starts developing feelings for Watanuki after his personality changes a bit. They spend more time together since Watanuki is being carefully after being with her. The last time Himawari appears is after giving some cookies to Watanuki made by herself. In xxxHolic RO, Watanuki and Himawari grow apart and their relationship ends in a "more than friends, but less than lovers" relationship. Because her misfortune affliction and the shop cause problems to occur, she promised to never enter the shop except on Watanuki's birthday. Even if they only can see each other once a year, Himawari falls in love with Watanuki, however in Chapter 209, it is stated that Himawari is married with a unknown businessman who knows about Watanuki and accept their friendship. Watanuki sends Himawari and her husband a chrysanthemum wine to give them fortune and good health. Shizuka Domeki Watanuki and Shizuka's meeting happened before the manga started. They had first seen each other on the school stairway and Watanuki, annoyed with just Shizuka's face, started yelling at him. The first time we see the two together in the manga is after gym class when the two had been playing soccer. Himawari was telling Watanuki what a good soccer player he is and that he almost scored a goal. Watanuki said that he didn't score anny because he felt bad for the goalie. Shizuka, whom was the goalie, then appeared and started arguing with Watanuki calmly though Watanuki at this point was scolding him furiously. Through Yuuko's bidding, Watanuki asked Shizuka to use his temple so that they could tell ghost stories an Shizuka agreed. After the event, Yuuko concluded that Shizuka could purify spirits while Watanuki attracted them, and so while Watanuki and Shizuka are near each other, Watanuki will not be bothered by spirits. From then on, Yuuko sends Watanuki and Shizuka on missions together in order to grant various customers' wishes. Much to the annoyance of Watanuki, Shizuka is always asking for food and eats so much that Watanuki complains. The two are always fighting in a typical manner: Shizuka speaking and rationalizing calmy while Watanuki (always compared to an angry cat) is scolding and yelling. They don't get along at all though they will always stay together even when angry and help each other when the situation calls for it. They share a deep bond that cannot be broken by either words nor actions. In xxxHolic Ro, Watanuki and Shizuka are still good friends and Shizuka often helps Watanuki with things like shopping that Watanuki cannot do himself due to his restrainment at the shop. Zashiki Warashi Zashiki Warashi has a crush on Watanuki, though she is very shy so everytime she sees Watanuki or comes in contact with him she panics or blushes. Because of her love for him she begins to change becoming more adult like. Watanuki first met her when she came to the human world to give a ohagi to Watanuki (anime), and in return Watanuki gives her hair clips with wings on them. When she left to retrieve Watanuki's eye, she was captured by Jorou-Gumo. Watanuki went to save her in exchange of losing his right eye forever. Quotes * "If at any time you have a wish that needs to be granted, Yuko-san, If it's something I can do, I'll try to grant it! With all my strength!" *''"Why should a choice in which I had no say decide... Decide... Decide anything about a person who is so important to me."'' *''"When I recieve snacks from you, I feel like if i'm in heaven. Just by seeing you, my mood becomes good. When Himawari-chan calls me Watanuki-kun and smiles and talks to me, those are all good things to me. To be able to meet Himawari-chan, I'm very happy.''" See more quotes on the Quotes page! Trivia *He has already met Yuuko before their meeting in xxxHolic Episode 1. *Mokona likes to call him 'shigatsu tsuitachi' which also means April 1/April Fool. *His signature is a bird, in contrast with Yuko's which is a butterfly. It looks like Tsubasa Reservoir Chronicle logo and it is given by Syaoran, as seen in xxxHolic special chapter. *Watanuki Kimihiro is not his true name. It is changed by his true parents so Fei Wong won't be able to recover and use him to his evil purposes. *In Horitsuba Gakuen, his traits are still the same as he does in xxxholic. He still hates Doumeki and likes Himawari, gets along with Syaoran, Syaoron and Sakura. His dishes is usually praised by their Home Economist teacher, Yuui. *Watanuki is the only main XXXHolic character to wear glasses and which eyes are draw in a different way to the others. *All the girls that Watanuki and Doumeki meet together say that they look like good friends. *After Yuko's death, Watanuki changes the style of his glasses from oval-shaped glasses to circular like glasses which resembles Clow Reed's glasses he found in the treasure room *Watanuki gets his pipe cleaned out and fixed at the Moon Rabbit Kiseru Shop *It is hinted that Watanuki had the power to stay youth for even 100 years because of his power. All the magicians have a longer life span that normal humans because of their powers and is also mentioned that Watanuki can still "see" without his glasses. *Usually says: Ah! When he remembers or realized something. *Watanuki bears a strong resemblance to Clow Reed rather than his own parents, though in his younger years his personality isn't similar at all to Clow's. He does however, share Clow's magic circle, and in the later chapters he receives a pair of glasses identical to Clow's, furthering their similarity in appearance. *In Rou Adayume when Watanuki travels into Doumeki's past, he comments "was I really this noisy back then?" on his younger self. *Some people are unable to see Watanuki. When Watanuki tries to protect Kohane from her mother in tv studio, the people can´t see Watanuki but the cameras record him. *Since he is the Major character, Watanuki appears in every chapter and episode of the series and most of the scenes. If there is a scene where he doesn't appear, he's mentioned or is close to the place where the scene happens. *Watanuki has great speed and agility. It can be seen in several scenes when pursued or attacked by a spirit dodging each of its attacks. *Watanuki is a secondary character in Drug&Drop, the revamp/sequel to Gohou Drug. *His true name is Kimihiro Li. Theories Some theories also suggest that Watanuki is the reincarnation of Clow Reed both in looks and his magical abilities in Ch.204(xXxHoLic). He was also thought to be the offspring of Clow and Yuko; this theory declined in popularity when Watanuki was revealed to be Syaoran (Tsubasa)'s replacement. It has also been theorized by some that Watanuki may actually be Clow himself. However this is a major contradiction as according to the plot of Cardcaptor Sakura , Clow Reed is supposed to be the son of an English and Chinese parent, with the Li Clan being on his mother's side. However, watanuki was in fact created out of a space time distortion to replace Tsubasa Syaoran as the son of the reincarnated clones, and the Li family actually happens to be on his father's side. Besides this theory also implies that Clow would have to be simultaneously dead and alive at certain points in time. Yet another theory suggests that he may be Fei Wong Reed. However, as Watanuki is not a created being, this theory has also been mostly abandoned. References Category:Characters Category:xxxHolic Characters Category:Article stubs Category:XxxHolic Protagonist Category:Male Characters Category:Characters in manga Category:Content Category:Magicians